Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine

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Orion, Apr 30, 2015 - History - 320 pages

A classic and vivid history of Ukraine

'A fascinating and often violent odyssey, spanning more than 1,000 years of conflict and culture' Independent on Sunday


Centre of the first great Slav civilisation in the tenth century, then divided between warring neighbours for a millennium, Ukraine finally won independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tiring of their own corrupt governments, Ukrainians have since mounted two popular revolutions, taking to the streets to demand fair elections and closer ties to Europe. In the spring of 2014, Russia responded by invading Crimea and sponsoring a civil war in the Russian-speaking Donbass. Threatened by Moscow, misunderstood in the West, Ukraine hangs once more in the balance. Speaking to pro-democracy activists and pro-Russia militiamen, peasants and miners, survivors of Hitler's Holocaust and Stalin's famine, Anna Reid combines history and travel-writing to unpick the past and present of this bloody and complex borderland.

'Beautifully written and lovingly researched' Daily Telegraph
'Gripping history' The Times

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About the author (2015)

Anna Reid was born in 1965. She read law at Magdalen College, Oxford, and took a master's degree in Russian history and reform economics from London University's School of Slavonic and East European Studies. She lived in Ukraine from 1993 to 1995 where she was the Kiev correspondent for the ECONOMIST and the DAILY TELEGRAPH. She has also written for the FINANCIAL TIMES and SPECTATOR.

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